1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to image processing and, more particularly, to an efficient implementation of a noise removal filter for image data.
2. Related Art
It is known in the art to filter image data to correct pixels that have been corrupted by noise. One drawback with such image data filtering is that it requires a significant amount of processor capacity. For example, it is usually necessary to perform a large number of operations using pixel data of a test pixel and adjacent pixels. These operations are performed regardless of whether the test pixel has actually been corrupted by noise.